India’s Congress Elects First Non-Gandhi Chief in 24 Years | DoramasQueen

The Indian Congress appointed a non-Gandhi prime minister as its president in 24 years. Mallikarjun Kharge, 80, was elected by members to replace Sonia Gandhi as the powerful party leader after India’s independence from Britain 75 years ago.

The Indian National Congress ruled India for decades after independence in 1947, but now Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fallen into disrepute amid allegations of electoral fraud.

The Gandhi family is not related to Mahatma Gandhi, the symbol of India’s independence, but to Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first prime minister.

Nehru was the father of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who was assassinated in 1984.

Rajiv Gandhi’s mother who was assassinated by suicide squad in 1991.

The party was in power at the national level from 2004 to 2014 under the leadership of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

After the BJP defeated the Congress in the last two elections, Modi mocked party president Rahul Gandhi – Rajiv and Sonia’s son – as a foreign prince and a playboy.

After the latest defeat in 2019, Rahul Gandhi resigned as party president, handing over the reins to his Italian-born mother Sonia, who was first appointed in 1998. Kharge, a former railway and labor minister from the Dalit community, was born five years before independence and is believed to have the support of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi.

Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said that Garg is now the top functionary of the party and will decide my role in the party. “His vast experience and ideological commitment will serve the team well as he takes on this historic responsibility,” he said on Twitter.

But even if there is a setback, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are expected to pull the strings from behind the scenes. Cork, four months older than US President Joe Biden, now faces the challenge of winning the next national election in 2024 and three state elections next year.

‘Winning is important’
Former UN Deputy Secretary General Shashi Tharoor (66), who campaigned for ‘transformation’ in the party, joins Cork. The successful author is an outspoken critic of British colonialism, saying in 2017 that Winston Churchill “blooded the worst genocidal dictators of the 20th century”.

Tharoor conceded defeat on Twitter and wished Cork “success in all his endeavours” and said it was a “great honor and a great responsibility” to be the Congress president.

After the last national elections, the party was left with only 53 seats in the 543-member lower house of Parliament, while the BJP won 303 seats. Rashid Katwai, a fellow at the Observer Research Foundation and close to the party for many years, told AFP that the decision to field a non-Gandhi candidate showed that the Congress was “tired of criticism from the BJP and Modi”.

He said there was a “fair chance” that Garga could turn the team’s fortunes around. He may be 80 years old but he is healthy. Gudwai said he would meet party leaders on state and regional issues. “But at the end of the day, in an electoral democracy, winning elections is important.